The loss of contracts with the operator Orange runs the risk of around 1,800 layoffs at the equipment manufacturer Scopelec, the chairman of the supervisory board of this cooperative specializing in the deployment of telecom equipment told AFP on Wednesday.
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“
Today, it is the whole company which is threatened with death
” and its model of cooperative society, worried Alain Tomas. He now appeals to the public authorities, in order to "
get around a table to find solutions
". At the origin of this situation: the loss of subcontracting contracts with Orange, its historical partner and main customer, responsible for 40% of its turnover, estimated at 475 million euros in 2021 Established on more than 90 sites in France, Scopelec, which has some 3,600 employees, remains one of the six "
major
" partners retained by Orange despite the loss of these contracts, following a call for tenders launched early 2021.”
After several warnings in recent years, the quality of the services offered by certain current service providers, including Scopelec, which has received dozens of formal notices due to breaches in certain territories, has led Orange to review the allocation of the areas entrusted to each one
. , explained in December the former France Telecom, of which the State is the largest shareholder.
Sogetrel employees on strike
For its part, Sogetrel, which specializes in fiber and very high-speed networks, lost the Orange market in the North and Pays de la Loire at the end of 2021, and won markets in particular in the south and south-west at from the end of March. The equipment manufacturer's employees went on strike on Monday to protest against the transfers imposed on 600 employees in the North, Haute-Marne, Champagne Ardennes, Normandy and Pays de la Loire, according to Teddy Stevance, union representative at the CSE. The management wishes to send many of these employees to Occitania or Aquitaine, threatening dismissal of the refractory, according to this CGT trade unionist. Management told AFP on Wednesday that it had "
established a social dialogue
from November, and offered training, around sixty local positions, and several hundred positions in other regions, on which "
a hundred employees have positioned themselves
".
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The president of the Hénin-Carvin agglomeration community Christophe Pilch mentioned the possibility of transferring certain positions to Sogetrel's competitor who won the Orange call for tenders.
He called on the management to “
discuss
” on the establishment of a job protection plan, to better support the employees who will have to be made redundant.
